My Little Pony corrals unlikely fanboys known as 'Bronies'

The 32-year-old, who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, loves his
daily fix of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, and
he's not alone. He's part of a growing group of "bronies" ("bro
ponies") -- men who are fans of a TV show largely intended for a
much younger audience.

"First we can't believe this show is so good, then we can't
believe we've become fans for life, then we can't believe we're
walking down the pink aisle at Toys R Us or asking for the girl's
toy in our Happy Meal," Allen said in an e-mail to Wired. "Then we
can't believe our friends haven't seen it yet, then we can't
believe they're becoming bronies too."

Every nerd has a favourite TV show they watch religiously and
know inside and out. But My Little Pony seems like an
unlikely object of fanboy love. Since the show debuted last fall on
cable channel Hub TV, it's attracted a growing number of male
fanatics. Their love of the show is internet
neo-sincerity at its best: In addition to watching the show,
these teenage, twenty- and thirtysomething guys are creating pony
art, posting fan videos on YouTube and feeding
threads on 4chan (and their own chan,Ponychan).

They also risk life, limb and being trolled to death on the
/co/ board to fawn over a small gaggle of ponies with names
like Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Rainbow
Dash.

The fan videos might be the main reason anyone outside the brony
community knows the show as a meme. Nerd blog Topless Robot, for example,
is committed to following My Little
Pony fan videos. One YouTube user posted an 8-bit chiptune
anthology of songs from the show, and the A.V. Club recently
called the trend of mashing up My Little
Pony clips with movie trailers a "meme champion."

"I believe the fan base for this new generation
of MLP is one of the most amazing/unexpected
things to come out of the internet in a long while," Henri Yount, a
20-year-old from Virginia whose My Little Pony
mashups with movie trailers have gotten nearly 350,000 views
on YouTube, said in an e-mail to Wired (see his pony-riffic spin
on Watchmen above).

"When I say 'amazing,' I'm referring to the crazy amount of
content and the hard-working people who produce material every day,
which I haven't seen in many other fan bases," Yount added.

To see that dedication, one need only take a quick look at a
recent series of "Hitler Reacts To..." videos that show Der
Führer as a dedicated brony infuriated over the removal of
several My Little Pony videos from YouTube. Or
the high school presentation one young man did on the physics
of the show. (A note to other news outlets: Physics Brony's name
isn't Stephen Magnet as has been reported. Stephen is right,
but the last name is a reference to "Steven Magnet" -- an
inside joke amongst bronies.)

YouTube isn't the only place online creative communities are
gathering in pony love. The online artist collective deviantArt
had, at last count, nearly 90,000 pieces of My Little
Pony artwork and hundreds more are going
up each day (on one random day in May, about 330 pieces
were submitted).

My Little Pony creations have taken off in other
areas as well. On Equestria Daily, a fan blog that on first blush
could be mistaken for a fifth-grade girl's locker door, site
curator Shaun (he asked that his last name be withheld) struggled
to find a half-dozen pieces of art to post in a given day back
in January. He now claims he can easily fill a post with 30
images.

Shaun isn't just impressed with the amount of new content
bronies are submitting to his site, he's also amazed by his own
fascination with the show.

"Honestly, if someone were to have told me I'd be writing a pony
blog seven months ago, I would have called them insane," the
23-year-old from Arizona said in an e-mail to Wired.

Equestria Daily started back in January as a fun place to
collect fanfic and news about the show, Shaun said, but "it has,
obviously, evolved way past that." The brony hub gets roughly
175,000 pageviews per day now, up from about 20,000 just a few
months ago, he said.

Comments

Ah gotta admit, ah do understand why'd ya might think that, but ah do think that such an amazing show won't be dyin' down anytime soon, y'know.

Applejack

Dec 14th 2011

In reply to Orella

I punched out a guy at my pub the other day due to an argument about ponies. Only once he was on the ground and I was kneeled down, screaming in his face about how I'd decimate him if he dared question Rainbow Dash's sexuality again, did I realize; my fate, and all other bronies'- be they gangly hipsters, or six foot tall coal miners in rural Alberta- is set. There's something mess about this show, man. Some sort of energy I've never felt before. I used to have a drug problem- TBH, I think this show helped. A lot. XD It may fade, but I'm still hunting for a RD sticker for my bike. I think that's a sign it won't fade for me.

McAndrew

Jan 5th 2012

In reply to Orella

Almost one year passed since you have written this post. And everything what there happened with fandom is his rised up.Thank you for comment and good bye :)

Pitruź PL

Aug 28th 2012

In reply to Orella

Some men find it horrifying others of the same gender enjoy watching my little pony intact some say that if you watch it you can't class yourself as a man. Most girls often say that if a mans a bronie then they would dump them straight away. What is so amazing about ponies? What is wrong with men liking talking ponies?

Random visitor

Oct 5th 2012

In reply to Orella

2 years later, nearly everyone is a fucking brony, i dont get it, why do people like it so much, i cant find a reason, i watched a few episodes and saw what i expected, a tv show for little girls, maybe im missing the point, but pick up a fucking book and read some real literature.

ryan wentworth

Mar 18th 2013

Now that season 2 has premiered, I would just like to point out that Lauren Faust is still credited as the Executive Producer in the credits.

Jacob Rapp

Sep 17th 2011

PONIES ARE GAY. ESPECIALLY TALKING PONIES IN PASTEL COLOURS WITH PICTURES ON THEIR ASSES. YOU NEED A LIFE.

Ponyrella

Oct 15th 2012

In reply to Ponyrella

you are ignorant, ponies are magically and without them life would be meaningless!

mylittlebrodie

Oct 24th 2012

In reply to Ponyrella

you are ignorant, ponies are magically and without them life would be meaningless!